Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
June 1, 2015

BEIJING — Restaurant operator KFC said today it had filed a lawsuit against three companies in China whose social media accounts were spreading false claims about its food, including that its chickens had eight legs.

The case filed by China’s biggest restaurant operator comes as the government intensifies a campaign to clean up rumours on social media. Internet marketers have been convicted of trying to manipulate online sentiment on behalf of clients by posting false information about competitors or deleting critical posts.

One of the thousands of KFC locations in China.

In an announcement posted on its Chinese website, KFC said one of the best-known fake rumours was that chickens used by the company were genetically modified and had six wings and eight legs.

KFC is demanding 1.5 million yuan (BDS$484,000) and an apology from each of three companies that operated accounts on the popular mobile phone app WeChat. It is also seeking an immediate stop to their infringements. Shanghai Xuhui District People’s Court has accepted the case, according to a press officer.

KFC’s China CEO Qu Cuirong said in a statement that it was hard for companies to protect their brands against rumours because of the difficulties in collecting evidence. “But the stepped-up efforts by the government in recent years to purify the online environment, as well as some judicial interpretations, have offered us confidence and weapons,” she said.

The companies being sued were named as Shanxi Weilukuang Technology Company Ltd, Taiyuan Zero Point Technology Company and Yingchenanzhi Success And Culture Communication Ltd in Shenzhen city. Calls to numbers listed for the companies either rang unanswered or were not valid.

Authorities launched a renewed campaign two years ago to clean up what they called online rumours, negativity and unruliness. Critics say the campaign was largely aimed at suppressing criticism of the ruling Communist Party. Commentaries in state media have argued that a clean-up was needed.